Pete Doherty feels reborn

Pete Doherty says touring and releasing a new album with The Libertines makes him feel like they have "died and been buried and come back"

Pete Doherty says it feels like The Libertines have "died and been buried and come back".

The group imploded in acrimony just two and a half years after forming in 1997 but now that they are returning with comeback album 'Anthems For Doomed Youth', recovering drug addict Pete, 36, feels they have been reborn.

Speaking to the Guardian about the split, he said: ""It was this colossal f**king row that took 10 years to get over, basically. And, also, I stopped taking heroin, all day, every day, intravenously. That helped, too.

"It feels like we've died and been buried and come back."

Pete - who has been clean since January - revealed that when bandmate Carl Barat, 37, told him he believed in him, he felt like it was a "miracle".

He explained: "When Carl looked me in the eye and actually believed me when I said I was going to give it a f**king go, it was like a miracle. Everything else was forgotten. This self-absorbed vision, this decadent artistic life, it didn't mean anything when you're squatting in that dank, decaying place. And Carl said, 'Look, I know somewhere you're still in there, the person I used to know. Come out to play.'"

Meanwhile, drummer Gary Powell insisted that the ups and downs of the past have made them appreciate the group much more.

He said: "I'm a lot more positive now than I was before. Everybody truly understands the position we're in and the friendships we've cultivated over the years. There's less chance of us throwing it away.

And bassist John Hassall added: "I wasn't waiting for it because that would have been quite a stupid thing to do. To have a new album and be touring festivals seemed like an impossible dream."